Frances Van Gasken
{{short description|American physician}}
{{Infobox person
| name = Frances Van Gasken
| image = FrancesVanGasken1921.png
| alt = An older white woman with white hair in an updo, wearing pince-nez glasses on a lanyard, and a dark dress or academic robe, photographed in profile
| caption = Frances Van Gasken, from a 1921 yearbook
| birth_name = Frances Culbreth Van Gasken
| birth_date = May 24, 1860
| birth_place = Smyrna, Delaware, U.S.
| death_date = October 24, 1939 (age 79)
| death_place = Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, U.S.
| other_names =
| occupation = {{flatlist|
- Physician
- educator
- suffragist}}
| years_active =
| known_for =
| notable_works =
| spouse(s) =
| relatives =
}}
Frances Culbreth Van Gasken (May 24, 1860 – October 24, 1939) was an American physician and suffragist, based in Philadelphia.
Early life and education
Van Gasken was born in Smyrna, Delaware,{{Cite news |date=1939-10-25 |title=Native of Smyrna, Early Interne, Dies |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-news-obituary-for-frances-va/145538003/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=The Morning News |pages=1 |via=Newspapers.com}} the daughter of John Van Gasken and Harriet Van Gasken. Her mother died in 1863, and she was raised by her stepmother, Rachel English Van Gasken. She graduated from the Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania in 1890.{{Cite news |date=1939-10-25 |title=Woman Doctor Died |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/standard-speaker-woman-doctor-died/145551159/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=Standard-Speaker |pages=11 |via=Newspapers.com}} She later made postgraduate studies in Vienna. Her brother Joseph practiced medicine in Texas.{{Cite journal |date=September 1893 |title=Medical News and Miscellany |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=qKQCAAAAYAAJ&dq=Frances+Van+Gasken&pg=PA140 |journal=Texas Medical Journal |volume=9 |issue=3 |pages=140}}
Career
Van Gasken was one of the first women interns at Philadelphia General Hospital. In 1893 she was an inspector for the city's Bureau of Health,{{Cite journal |last=Sutherland |first=John F. |date=1975 |title=The Origins of Philadelphia's Octavia Hill Association: Social Reform in the "Contented" City |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20090920 |journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |volume=99 |issue=1 |pages=24 |jstor=20090920 |issn=0031-4587}} and addressed the Civic Club of Philadelphia on health conditions in the city's tenement houses.{{Cite journal |last=Phillips |first=Harlan B. |date=1952 |title=A War on Philadelphia's Slums: Walter Vrooman and the Conference of Moral Workers, 1893 |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/20088325 |journal=The Pennsylvania Magazine of History and Biography |volume=76 |issue=1 |pages=47–62 |jstor=20088325 |issn=0031-4587}}{{Cite journal |last=Kahan |first=Michael B. |date=2013-10-01 |title=The Risk of Cholera and The Reform of Urban Space: Philadelphia, 1893 |url=https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1111/j.1931-0846.2013.00018.x |journal=Geographical Review |language=en |volume=103 |issue=4 |pages=517–536 |doi=10.1111/j.1931-0846.2013.00018.x |bibcode=2013GeoRv.103..517K |issn=0016-7428}} She was resident physician at the College Settlement House in Philadelphia until 1896,{{Cite book |last=College Settlements Association |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=HdsJAAAAIAAJ&dq=Frances+Van+Gasken&pg=RA4-PT5 |title=Annual Report |date=1892 |pages=36 |language=en}} when she became physician for the women's department of the Philadelphia Municipal Court. She was removed as medical inspector by the mayor in 1899, sparking a protest from her colleagues.{{Cite news |date=1899-04-25 |title=Want Dr. Van Gasken Reappointed |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-times-want-dr-van-gask/145555449/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=The Philadelphia Times |pages=3 |via=Newspapers.com}} She was a professor of clinical medicine at the Woman's Hospital of Philadelphia from 1918 until she resigned as part of a faculty protest over Alice Weld Tallant's dismissal in 1923.{{Cite news |date=1939-10-25 |title=Prominent Woman Doctor, Native of Smyrna, is Dead |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-journal-prominent-woman-doctor/145530224/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=The News Journal |via=Newspapers.com|pages=1}}{{Cite book |last=Peitzman |first=Steven Jay |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=f_-SVxIluc0C&dq=Frances+Van+Gasken&pg=PA133 |title=A New and Untried Course: Woman's Medical College and Medical College of Pennsylvania, 1850-1998 |date=2000 |publisher=Rutgers University Press |isbn=978-0-8135-2816-8 |pages=133–134, 150 |language=en}}
Van Gasken was known to wear a "Votes for Women" pin while teaching, and in January 1915 she was part of a delegation of Pennsylvania suffragists who spoke on the subject at the White House with Woodrow Wilson.{{Cite news |date=1915-01-09 |title=Dr. Van Gasken and Miss Paul Comment |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/maryland-suffrage-news-dr-van-gasken-an/145551645/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=Maryland Suffrage News |pages=2 |via=Newspapers.com}}{{Cite news |date=1915-01-04 |title=Democratic Women Will Ask President for Suffrage Help |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-washington-herald-democratic-women-w/145554800/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=The Washington Herald |pages=6 |via=Newspapers.com}} She exhorted women medical students in 1917 to take on professional responsibilities and join in the war effort,{{Cite journal |last=Jensen |first=Kimberly |date=1993 |title=Uncle Sam's Loyal Nieces: American Medical Women, Citizenship, and War Service in World War I |url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/44445837 |journal=Bulletin of the History of Medicine |volume=67 |issue=4 |pages=670–690 |jstor=44445837 |pmid=8312707 |issn=0007-5140}} saying "Who is there to fill these places but women? Is it not your day? Does opportunity not call to you?"{{Cite web |title=Not Waiting for the Call: American Women Physicians and World War I |url=https://wwionline.org/wwi-online/articles/not-waiting-call-american-women-physicians-and-world-war-i |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=Falvey Library Exhibits}}{{Cite web |last=Mandell |first=Melissa |date=January 18, 2017 |title=The Hippocratic Vote |url=https://thesmartset.com/the-hippocratic-votes/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |website=The Smart Set |language=en-US}}
Personal life and legacy
Van Gasken died in Drexel Hill, Pennsylvania, in 1939, at the age of 79.{{Cite news |date=1939-10-27 |title=A Worthy Woman |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-morning-news-a-worthy-woman/145551384/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=The Morning News |pages=8 |via=Newspapers.com}} She left money to her sister and Camp Onawa in Piscataquis County, Maine, to her nephew;{{Cite news |date=1939-11-04 |title=Sister Gets Bulk of $30,000 Estate |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-philadelphia-inquirer-sister-gets-bu/145556353/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=The Philadelphia Inquirer |pages=11 |via=Newspapers.com}} her estate also funded a scholarship in her father's name, at a high school in her hometown.{{Cite news |date=1952-03-31 |title=Smyrna Club Picks Officers |url=https://www.newspapers.com/article/the-news-journal-smyrna-club-picks-offic/145554603/ |access-date=2024-04-17 |work=The News Journal |pages=10 |via=Newspapers.com}}
References
{{reflist}}{{DEFAULTSORT:Van Gasken, Frances}}
Category:People from Smyrna, Delaware
Category:Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania alumni
Category:Woman's Medical College of Pennsylvania faculty
Category:American women in World War I
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